News | The Last of Us multiplayer game canceled

Developer Naughty Dog announced this in a official statement. Although no official name was previously communicated, the company calls the game “The Last of Us Online” in the statement.

“There’s no easier way to say this: we have made the incredibly difficult decision to halt development of this game. We understand that this news is being taken hard by many of you, especially the The Last of Us Factions community who fervently followed our multiplayer ambitions.” Factions was the name of the multiplayer mode in the first The Last of Us.

The multiplayer game was already in development around the same time that the company was working on The Last of Us: Part 2. It was always the intention that the multiplayer game would be released as a standalone experience. Over the years, Naughty Dog gradually released information and artwork. Earlier this year, the company indicated that it needed more time for the game, but according to rumors, development behind the scenes was slow. Later in the year, there were rumors of layoffs at Naughty Dog and the possibility that the game’s development had been halted.

“While we were in full production, the incredible scale of our ambition became clear to us. To release and continue to support The Last of Us Online, we would need to dedicate our entire studio to continue releasing content in the years following release , which would have a significant impact on the development of future single-player games. So we had the choice of two options: become a full live-service game studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that Naughty Dog is known for.”

It goes without saying that the studio has chosen the second option. The company says it has more than one “completely new single-player games” in development, and a PS5 remaster of the second The Last of Us game will be released in January.